The Notre Dame fire and the future of history

Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by mikeash on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @11:58AM (#19674776)

If you were doing it today, you’d be better off putting your effort into improved propulsion. A time may come when you hit the limits and need to carry out a very long project to send a probe to another star, but we’re not there now.

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Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by kijin on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @10:38PM (#19679275)

There's always going to be better propulsion just around the corner, at least until you reach something like 0.999c. At some point you just say "fuck it, we're launching this probe now."

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Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by mikeash on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @07:12AM (#19681495)

The point when your probe arrives soonest is not the point where your propulsion technology is fastest, certainly, but that point is very unlikely to be now.

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